Monthly Archives: October 2010

This wonderfully constructed little video adds a nice visual element to part of a Stephen Fry essay on language. Fry’s particular stance has always been a mix of the quite old and the very new. And in this piece on language he reveals himself as a progressive again, rallying against pedants whose love for language, […]

Share this:

Recently my old battered debit card finally ran out and Barclays sent me a replacement. I picked up a pen, attempted to sign the strip at the back, slipped and produced a hopeless scrawl that I’m going to have to live with for the next four years. With smartphones and computers everywhere, perhaps handwriting is […]

Share this:

Three years working in digital media is a long time. A little like computing your dog’s age, you’ve got to multiply time served by a factor of something like seven to account for all the policy changes and technical innovations that have sped by. When I first walked into Net Media Planet in early 2008 […]

Share this:

For any of you passing Regent’s Park over the next few days, the Frieze Art Fair is currently running. The upside down car pictured is one of the exhibits. Frieze Art Fair features over 150 of the most exciting contemporary art galleries in the world. The fair also includes specially commissioned artists’ projects, a prestigious […]

Share this:

As more than 200 people have been Irkafirka’d now, I thought that it was high time that I got a photo of my print up on here. I got this through the Zazzle online shop in June. It’s 80.1cm tall by 58.4cm wide. It’s currently hanging on the living room wall and it frequently confuses […]

Share this:

As anyone who has been through the British education system might know, 12 October is the anniversary of Animal Farm’s Battle of the Cowshed. Here’s a snippet of Orwell’s coverage in commemoration. As the human beings approached the farm buildings, Snowball launched his first attack. All the pigeons, to the number of thirty-five, flew to […]

Share this:

One of the most entertaining books that I’ve read recently is Richard Holmes’ Age of Wonder. It’s a relay race of scientific achievement contained in the period between Cook’s first trip to Tahiti and Darwin’s famous voyage to the Galapagos, a little more than 60 years later. This was the enlightenment, an age of progress […]

Share this:

I met my dad a few weeks ago for a dangerously strong coffee in a busy Italian cafe/restaurant just off Great Portland Street. Outside it was grey and drizzling. I had just dashed out of the office and he was on his way to Euston Station having spent the previous hour or so in the […]

Share this:

Just a few years ago I would have dismissed anyone suggesting that I might one day read a book on a telephone as drunk, mad or foolish. Anyway, last Thursday I completed this slightly odd milestone when I finished off the latest part of Stephen Fry’s autobiography. I’d not turned a single page; it was […]